Antisemitismo delle Passioni. La Palestra del clero e il tema del deicidio / Antisemitism of Passions: the Palestra del clero and the Deicide Issue

This article analyses the exploitation of the myths of “Christ’s killers” and “deicide” in Italian Catholic culture during the second half of 19th century as part of a massive implementation of religious antisemitism that predates and parallels the rise of political antisemitism. It also emphasizes how many themes of political antisemitism were embedded in the Passion’s narratives and empowered through the performative impact of preaching and rituals in a culture that still retained one of the highest rate of illiteracy. Far from being a “survival” of theological traditional Anti-judaism, “deicide” and “Christ’s killers” myths were part of a clear political project that combined both hatred for the Jews, as the theological enemy, and refusal of modernity. Moreover, Passion’s narratives were instrumental in disseminating emotions of religious hatred that enforced, through means of tradition and devotion, a most effective form of cultural antisemitism and contributed to the dissemination of the image of Jews as a collective outrageos “Other”.